Swallowbrook's Wedding Of The Year. Abigail Gordon

the main street he saw that the lights were out in the apartment above the bakery and thought that she must have gone to meet her friends after all.

      As he walked briskly along, The Mallard came into view and after a quick look around inside to make sure that Julianne and her associates weren’t there, he found warmth from the wintry night and friendly chat amongst folk who some day he might find sitting across from him at the surgery.

      The two Lawrence doctors, Hugo and Ruby, were seated at one of the tables with the practice manager Laura Armitage and her husband, Gabriel. When they saw him Hugo came across and invited him to join them, and putting his gloomy thoughts to one side he accepted and for the first time since his arrival in Swallowbrook started to feel as if he belonged.

      As the evening progressed it was discussed that the Lawrences were expecting a child to adopt soon, which would mean that Ruby being the relief doctor in the pairing-off process might not be available for long, but there would be time enough for Nathan to sort that out when it happened.

      He also discovered that Laura and Gabriel had two children—Sophie, nine years old and staying the night at a school friend’s, and Josh, six, who was sleeping at Nathan’s with his best friend, Toby, which had left their parents free to socialise for a change.

      The conversation was mostly about themselves and the village as a whole, with frequent mentions of the practice, but as there was no reason for the nurses to come under discussion Julianne’s name didn’t come up and perversely Aaron wished that it would, so that he might pick up some substance regarding her life past and present with regard to the best way to cope with her unwelcome presence in his life.

      As he walked back at gone midnight to where the waterfall danced endlessly into the lake he saw that her apartment was still in darkness and thought that she was most likely still living it up somewhere. As a mini-bus unloaded a group of late-night passengers just ahead of him he quickened his step in case she was amongst them. Two accidental meetings in one night was not to be contemplated.

      He would have been amazed to know that she was lying wide-eyed against the pillows in her small bedroom, with sleep hard to come by because of him, and when he arrived back at the cottage he paused for a moment before going inside.

      A winter moon was turning the still, dark waters of the lake into silver, and in the background the fells, high up above, encircled it like a protective bracelet. The scene was indescribably beautiful and so was the woman who had spoiled his homecoming with her presence, but, then, she hadn’t been exactly overjoyed to see him either.

      All you’ve got to do is stick to the job and its demands when you’re in her presence, he reminded himself, and for the rest of it stay out of her way. Unlocking the door of the cottage, he went slowly upstairs and tried not to dwell on how difficult that might turn out to be.

      With Friday gone, Saturday dawned bright and cold, and when Julianne awoke after falling asleep in the early hours with the short time she’d spent with Aaron the last thing on her mind, it was also the first when she opened her eyes, and she groaned softly.

      She’d been content before he had reappeared on the scene, happy and fulfilled in her job, safe in the home she had made for herself above George’s bakery, where he liked to feel he was keeping a fatherly eye on her. There was no need, of course, but it gave him pleasure to do so and she was happy to go along with it as she saw little enough of her own father.